Despite 20 points from senior guard Davis Baker and sophomore forward Matt Massey's career-high 18 points, the SUU men's basketball team fell to North Dakota State 79-59 in Fargo, N.D., handing the T-Birds their 13th consecutive road loss dating back to last season.
SUU (6-17, 2-10 Summit League) came into Saturday's game after falling to South Dakota State 84-60 on Thursday night.
On Saturday, the T-Birds shot 10-for-13 from the free throw line, while the Bison shot 34-for-37 from the free throw stripe. In a game decided by 20 points, 24 extra points came off free throws for NDSU.
SUU also committed 18 turnovers in the game, while the Bison only turned the ball over five times.
"We did a lot of good things tonight," T-Bird men's basketball head coach Roger Reid said in a press release after Saturday's loss. "But we fouled them too much and we turned the ball over too much. I thought we had a good defensive effort, and we rebounded the ball very well just two nights after not rebounding well at all, but the fouls and the turnovers really hurt us."
However, SUU forced NDSU to shoot 40 percent from the floor in the game and the team outrebounded the Bison 34-27.
"I honestly thought tonight was one of our best defensive efforts, although the score may not show it," said T-Bird men's basketball assistant head coach Ron Carling, in a press release.
Baker and Massey combined to score 38 of SUU's 59 points. Freshman forward Jackson Stevenett contributed with six points for the T-Birds.
Sophomore forward Eric Carlson led NDSU with 19 points in a winning effort, while freshman guard Nate Zastrow and senior guard Josh Vaughn added 16 and 15 points respectively for the Bison.
On Thursday, SDSU outscored SUU 50-29 in the second half to extend a close three-point halftime lead into a 24-point blowout victory as the Jackrabbits defeated the Thunderbirds 84-60 inside the Frost Arena in Brookings, S.D.
“I thought we were playing right where we wanted to be (at the end of the first half),” Reid said in a post-game interview with Power 91’s Art Challis. “Then we came out and we were guarding the 3-point shot well, but we let them get away just a bit. Then we just had a span where we just fell flat.”
SUU trailed 34-31 after halftime and were down just 43-39 with 15:49 remaining in the second half after freshman guard Damon Heuir converted a 4-point play. Heuir connected on a 3-pointer while fouled being fouled by SDSU junior forward Anthony Cordova.
However, the Jackrabbits responded with a 10-0 run in the next four minutes to take a 14-point lead.
“That was the disappointing thing because we played really hard in the first half and they came out and hit some open shots,” Reid said. “We can’t let them have easy looks like that.”
The T-Birds were unable to close within 12-points of the SDSU lead. The Jackrabbits led by as much as 27 points before settling on the 24-point win.
SUU shot 50 percent in the first half, but just 31 percent (8-for-26) in the second half.
“We just need to know when we’re not scoring, we can’t let off defensively,” Reid said.
“Those guys are good enough and they’re so quick and they can hit shots. We talked about it at halftime that we’re doing a good job defensively, but we had to do a better job and we didn’t.”
The T-Birds led briefly three times in the game, but last led 21-20 at the 9:01 mark of the first half. SUU was outrebounded 39-20 in the contest, including 14-7 on the offensive glass. The T-Birds also committed 19 turnovers, but had 10 steals in the game.
The Jackrabbits shot 52 percent from the field in the game.
Baker led SUU with 17 points, five rebounds and a career-high five steals, Heuir added a career-high nine points. Massey contributed with eight points for the T-Birds.
Massey and freshman center Matt Hodgson, SUU’s top rebounders on the season, combined for just two total rebounds in the loss.
Senior guard Garrett Callahan led the Jackrabbits with 17 points, while junior guard Clint Sargent chipped in with 14 points — both started the game on the bench. Senior forward Kai Williams added 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Seven of his rebounds were on the offensive glass.
Cordova added 13 points for SDSU.
The T-Birds will return home for a matchup against Oakland on Thursday, followed by a contest against Purdue-Fort Wayne on Saturday.
Tip-off against the Golden Grizzlies is slated for 7 p.m. on Thursday, while Saturday's game against the Mastodons is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside the Centrum Arena.
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